This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

MONSOONMUNCHESMUNDIRI VENGAYA PAKODAMy mother - in - law was an expert in preparing delicious Pakodas. She used to prepare them by the time my father - in - law and his friends settled down in their garden chairs after their evening walk in the golf course. I ran up and down serving them the hot delicious snacks as and when my mother - in - law drained them out on the serving plates.Hot coffee and crunchy yummy pakodas are an ideal combination to while away time on a lazy rainy day.INGREDIENTSBesan ( Bengal gram flour) - 200 gmsRice flour - 2 heaped tbspsOnion - 1 big ( Finely minced)Cashew nuts - 1/4 cupGreen chillies - 2 ( finely minced) or 4 if you need it more spicy.Finely chopped curry leaves- 2 tbspsChilly poweder - 1/2 tspSalt - 1/4 tspCumin seeds - 1 tspOil - for fryingMETHOD1. Mix finely chopped onion, chopped green chillies, chopped curry leaves, salt, chilly powder, cashew nuts and cumin seeds in a bowl.2. Mix in the besan and rice flour to the mixture and knead lightly until the flours become moist with the juice of onion and salt.3. Heat oil in a kadai and decrease flame.4. Take out 3 tbsps of hot oil from the kadai and pour over the flour mixture and mix thoroughly.5. Mix few drops of water little by little until the flour binds all the ingredients loosely together. 6. Increase the flame.7. Pinch a marble size of dough and drop it in hot oil without shaping it. Pinch and drop some more pakodas in hot oil and cook them in batches.8. Flip the fritters using a perforated ladle, and cook till all the pakodas become golden brown in colour.9. Remove the pakodas and drain them on a paper towel.

Very interesting to hear that Indians like to serve these delectable savoury snacks with coffee. I'll give it a try!Thank you as always for the wonderful newsletters. Your recipes are excellent and so authentic.

I tried this y'day (using exactly the quantity and procedure detailed here), the pakodas ended up looking nice but they tasted uncooked (maavu maava irundhudhu), I tried adjusting the oil temperature and changing the consistency of the dough but nothing worked ! I am a novice w.r.t cooking and I want to learn where I went wrong (actually this is my first culinary experiment gone wrong...sigh...)

Dear SG,For crisp pakodas more "mavu" area should be exposed to oil.Try using it in small pinches and avoid making balls out of the batter.Coating the flour thoroughly with hot oil before adding water will yield good results.Thank you and wish you all the best.Chitra.

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Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

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